Love Sprocket

One last look at the chickens at the Fredericksburg RV Park, roosting on the back of a bench by the play area. One rooster keeping two hens company.

We drove east this morning, retracing our steps to the Lyndon B. Johnson State Historic Park and through, what some Chamber of Commerce has dubbed, "The Texas Tuscany." Still on the Hill Country Trail, the landscape is lovely and there are wineries, peach orchards, pecan groves and, I read, lavender farms. Last Tuesday when we drove to the LBJ Park we must have passed a dozen or more, wineries. Many of these wineries have tasting rooms in town on Main Street in Fredericksburg. In the slick, tourist magazine that Fredericksburg put out, it lists over 50 wineries within about 15 miles of Fredericksburg. Apparently there are regular wine tours through the area.

Unfortunately, we were too early for the peaches and pecans. There were numerous road-side stands, offering one or the other, that had "Closed for the Season" signs on them. But our mouths watered when we saw the signs on these closed establishments for peach ice cream and pecan fudge

Notice the limestone entrance.

It wasn't far, maybe 80 miles, to Austin. We are actually in the city limits of Austin, at McKinney Falls State Park. Today is the last day of school vacation in the state, and the weather was warm with sunshine and blue sky. That is a big change; most of the past two weeks has been cloudy with lots of rain.

Apparently McKinney Falls State Park is beloved by Austinites, they were out in the park in droves. There was a sign that the campgrounds were full, so fortunately we had a reservation. We un-hitched and went out to see what the park had to offer by way of hiking trails. The Ranger in the office had told us that two of the trails, Homestead Trail and Flint Rock Loop, are both closed because of all the rain. The only way to get to the trailhead is to cross the Onion River at one of the falls, but the water was too high to do that safely.

We opted for the Onion Trail that loops the front part of the park. The sign indicated that it was our-kind-of-trail, but the sign must be warning about the closed trail because the Onion Trail was kind of tame.

Three-quarters of the way around the loop we came upon Upper McKinney Falls. Here are some Texans enjoying the falls.

View along the Onion River below the falls. You can see that the water looks rather high.

Selfie at Upper Falls.

Along the way to the Lower Falls we came upon this interesting group of people having their picture taken.

We were told that they are musicians and that they have an album coming out soon and the pictures are for the album.

Lower McKinney Falls. This is the falls we would have to cross to get to the Homestead Trail and Flint Rock Loop.

The approach to the Lower Falls was across limestone that has eroded. With the water in the holes reflecting the sky, Frederick thought it resembled an Escher print.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puddle_(M._C._Escher)

Coming back from the Lower Falls and continuing on the Onion Trail we encountered the group again.  

This young woman, Ginger, is the girl friend of the drummer and her Father is taking the pictures. She told us that the name of the group is Love Sprocket. Sprocket, as in bicycle chain. She said that the two in the middle in the picture above, the woman in the red dress and the man in the red striped jacket, rode their bicycles from Vermont to Austin, Texas, the "Live Music Capital of the World". They joined with the other musicians and play Soul, Folk and Gospel music.

The structure they were having their picture taken in is the remains of the Horse Trainers Cabin.

This two-room structure, built in the early 1850s, served as quarters for Thomas McKinney's horse trainer, John Van Hagen. Van Hagen's house was at the center of McKinney's horse raising operations. Nearby were breeding and exercise pastures enclosed with stone fences, and a training track was located on the west side of Onion Creek.

Remains of a stone fence along Onion Trail.

 McKinney Fall State Park is the former homestead of racehorse breeder Thomas McKinney - one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300", the first three hundred to receive land grants from  Austin in 1824 when Texas belonged to Mexico. 

One of the benefits of all the rain is the lush green grass and new budding trees. It feels like spring.